The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Salvia plant botanically known as Salvia hybrid and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Roman Red’.
The new cultivar originated in a controlled breeding program in Hem, the Netherlands during August 2014. The objective of the breeding program was the development of Salvia cultivars having large flowers with attraction coloration, dark green-colored foliage, and a vigorous, highly branched, upright growth habit.
The new Salvia cultivar is the result of cross-pollination. The female (seed) parent of the new cultivar is Vista Rose ‘PAS425912’, not patented, characterized by its rose-colored flowers, dark green-colored foliage, and moderately vigorous, compact, columnar-upright growth habit. The male (pollen) parent of the new cultivar is a Salvia darcyi (Galeana Red Sage) selection, not coded, not patented, characterized by its bright coral-red colored flowers, light green-colored foliage, and vigorous, upright, clump-forming growth habit. The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the above stated cross-pollination during March 2015 in a controlled environment in Hem, the Netherlands.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal stem cuttings since March 2015 in Hem, the Netherlands and Arroyo Grande, Calif. has demonstrated that the new cultivar reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation.